As web design technology goes further flash-based websites are of great popularity nowadays minding also the fact that Macromedia implements more and more new features to Flash. But the thing is that flash based websites are not always considered to be the best solution for a website and sometimes can even break it. So let’s identify the main pros and cons of websites designed in flash.

The pros:
The first pleasant thing about flash-based website is its interactivity as it makes pages look vivid and live. There is a possibility of using animated menus, headers and even adding flash games to the source. The visitors will be glad to browse such nice dynamic pages and certainly will be impressed by the presentation of such website.
Working with flash you may not worry about browser compatibility as the main condition for viewing the flash files used within a website is an availability of a flash player, no matter what kind of browser a viewer uses.
Using flash within your website your message will be conveyed more effectively due to animation and interactive features. Besides flash is vector based and presents lighter and smaller in size files unlike to real movies which are large and heavy for the pages.

But, as was mentioned above, flash technology can have also some disadvantages when used for designing websites. The first thing is the requirement of a flash player to be installed for watching flash movies. So if the user hasn’t installed a player before he loads your site he will experience certain inconveniences, and not everyone will have a wish to download flash player just to be able to view your website. As for you, you will have to provide some additional link to redirect the user to flash player download page in case he doesn’t have one.
Presenting your website in flash you can not expect that a lot of search engines will be able to index it. This means you won’t be able to get high rankings and thus your site will receive less traffic.
Another disadvantage of flash based site concerns loading time. Flash animated content loads longer than regular one so the viewers of your site will have to wait more, and some of them may lose patience and as a result leave your website before it loads.

The only solution for you in case you are eager to implement flash elements within your website is to use it only when you absolutely need some motion and live action. Do not exaggerate with flash and think thoroughly before using it for your web presence.